HTL quasiparticle picture of the thermodynamics of QCD

Starting from a nonperturbative expression for entropy and density obtained from Φ-derivable two-loop approximations to the thermodynamic potential, a quasiparticle model for the thermodynamics of QCD can be developed which incorporates the physics of hard thermal loops and leads to a reorganization of the otherwise ill-behaved thermal perturbation theory through order α 3/2 s . Some details of this reorganization are discussed and the differences to simpler quasiparticle models highlighted. A comparison with available lattice data shows remarkable agreement down to temperatures of ∼ 2.5Tc. TUW 01-23